Prague, Feb 23 (CTK) – Deputies for Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO movement are asking the Constitutional Court to abolish three paras of the conflict of interest law, which restrict access to subsidies for ministers’ companies and ban media ownership by ministers, they told reporters yesterday.
They will send the complaint to the Constitutional Court (US) next week, Chamber of Deputies deputy chairman Radek Vondracek (ANO) said.
The deputies gathered signatures of 44 MPs in support of the complaint against the new law that restricts ministers’ businesses and is dubbed Lex Babis because many consider it aimed exclusively against Babis as a chemical, food and media magnate.
The signatories complain that the controversial paragraphs inadmissibly infringe upon the ownership right of members of the government and restrict their right to run business.
“We cannot divide citizens into two categories, one of which is being allowed to possess something and the other not. We insist that this is a restriction of access to public posts [for businesspeople],” Vondracek said.
The signatories also criticise the law for targeting a concrete person, Babis.
“We do not like the law being tailored to a single person and even halfway through the government’s election term. This is the main reason for us to lodge a constitutional complaint against the law,” ANO deputies’ group chairman Jaroslav Faltynek said.
The ANO deputies said the law’s original goal was to bind newly-elected politicians to release information about their property. They want to preserve this part of the law, which is why they demand the scrapping of only three paras that were added to the bill during the debate on it in the Chamber of Deputies.
The US is already dealing with Lex Babis on the proposal of President Milos Zeman, who, too, considers its parts at variance with the constitution.
To lodge a complaint with the US, ANO needed the signatures of 40 deputies at least. Apart from 41 ANO deputies, it has also been signed by three deputies from the minor opposition Dawn movement.
Lex Babis was passed by the votes of a majority of deputies from both government and opposition parties several weeks ago and parts of it came into force as of mid-February.
In reaction to it, Babis got rid of his giant Agrofert Holding and his other company, SynBiol, by transferring his shares to trust funds in early February.
Agrofert, the Czech biggest producer in the farming and food procession areas, the second largest chemical producer and an important player in forest management and media industry, employes about 34,000 people and is a significant recipient of state subsidies.
ANO has six seats in the Czech 17-seat centre-left cabinet.
In the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies, ANO is the second strongest party after the Social Democrats (CSSD). It won 47 seats in the Chamber in the 2013 general election and it is considered a hot favourite in the next election due this October.
